First Boeing team finishes their work on the last C-17

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Boeing C-17 mechanic Paul Johnson, left, and assembler Alan Perkins work on the forward spar for the wings of the last C-17, at the Boeing C-17 plant in Long Beach Calif., Tuesday July 29, 2014. The construction of the very last C-17 is being built through the Long Beach plant, which will officially end production in mid-2015.
(Photo by Stephen Carr / Daily Breeze)

Don Pitcher, Don Pitcher, director of production for the Boeing C-17 program in Long Beach Calif., Monday July 22, 2014. The construction of the very last C-17 is being built through the Long Beach plant, which will officially end production in mid-2015.
(Photo by Stephen Carr / Daily Breeze)

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Boeing C-17 sealer/mechanic Linda Foster seals the forward spar for the wings of the last C-17, at the Boeing C-17 plant in Long Beach Calif., Tuesday July 29, 2014. The construction of the very last C-17 is being built through the Long Beach plant, which will officially end production in mid-2015.
(Photo by Stephen Carr / Daily Breeze)

LONG BEACH >> Linda Foster pressed her pneumatic glue gun against two metal plates and painted a ribbon of black sealant along the last major airplane wing that will be produced in the Boeing C-17 factory in Long Beach.

Foster is one of 22 people that make up team 517, the group that assembles the main beam or “spar” of the Boeing C-17 wing. Team 517, which was officially dissolved Tuesday, is the first group to complete its work on No. 279, the last of 10 C-17s that are making their way through the yearlong assembly line.

The 25-year-old factory is scheduled to close next summer.

“It feels kind of strange,” said Foster, who has been building airplanes for 35 years. “It’s the last one! They should have a banner or sign.”

Nearly a week after Boeing delivered its 223rd and final C-17 to the U.S. Air Force in September, company officials announced that the factory would close in 2015.

The decision — which affects 2,200 Boeing employees based in Long Beach and thousands more at suppliers across the U.S. — was made because Boeing did not receive enough orders to justify keeping the line open beyond 2015.

While Boeing had strong interest from other countries such as India and Australia, 10 planes — including No. 279 — remain without committed orders.

The C-17 was conceived at the end of the Cold War and matured from a problematic prototype in the 1990s to a dependable military cargo plane whose ability to land and take off from short airfields made it a go-to airlifter for peacekeeping and humanitarian missions.

Don Pitcher, who directs about two-thirds of the C-17 production line, including wing and fuselage assembly, remembers being “under the gun” when he arrived at the plant in 1994. The C-17 program was behind schedule and over budget, and the government was threatening to discontinue the program if the factory didn’t “shape up” and cut costs.

“We had to get out of the Dark Ages as to how we manage people,” Pitcher said. “We were still stuck in the command-and-control era” of U.S. factory management, when supervisors gave orders from on high and workers “checked their minds at the gate.”

In an effort to shake up the hierarchical company culture, Boeing managers took cues from more nimble companies such as Toyota, Nissan and John Deere, which encouraged their employees to take ownership of their roles in the production line, Pitcher said. The company adopted a team-based model, where individuals only succeeded if their entire team met targets.

Before the reorganization, none of the C-17’s teams were meeting their benchmarks. After managers started empowering their workers, more than 85 percent of teams were making budget.

“It all comes down to people,” Pitcher said of his management style and the secret to the factory’s success.

Today, Pitcher gives presentations at other factories that he said are eager to replicate the company’s strategy.

Pitcher spoke of the pride that he and his workers felt after they saved the factory from Uncle Sam’s chopping block. The workers became invested in their work.

“For some people, this is the only job they ever had,” Pitcher said. “The clock’s ticking. There’s a little over a year left, and our people have not stopped working. … They are still making performance, still making cost, still going out with pride.”

At peak production, 590 teams were churning out 16 planes a year. When the U.S. government stopped ordering new planes in 2006, Boeing officials sought out foreign orders to continue the production line.

Boeing has delivered 36 C-17s to countries such as Canada, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, the United Kingdom and India, its largest foreign customer.

Boeing’s decision to close the C-17 production line affects more than 20,000 people from more than 650 suppliers in 44 states.

As the last C-17 moves through the assembly line, the workforce has been shrinking. Many have already retired, transferred to other Boeing facilities or have left for other work. The company has been providing financial counseling and job-searching help.

“You can’t just put them out the door,” said George Burden, financial secretary of the Local 148 chapter of the United Aerospace Workers. “You have to find another place for them to go temporarily, and if you don’t, then there’s a grievance.”

Boeing said it plans to reassign all 22 of the workers from team 517, as long as they can find enough work that fits their classifications. As structure mechanics, Burden said it’s likely they will get reassigned.

Meanwhile, Boeing and the union that represents many of the employees assigned to the C-17 are in contract talks that will shape the futures of those linked to the production line. Currently, there are no plans yet for the C-17 facility once it closes.

Dave Pederson used to run a truck-size machine called an electromagnetic riveter, or EMR, which he said can boor holes through metal with an accuracy of thousandths of an inch.

“With aviation, everything has got to be real precise,” Pederson said. “If your hole is too big or too sloppy, it can cause problems years down the road.”

Building his last forward spar was “bittersweet,” Pederson said Tuesday while standing beneath his EMR. He’ll go on to work on another part of the plane and hopes he keeps his job through next summer, but even after 28 consecutive years of airplane work, he said he’s still four years away from retirement.

He hopes to find work locally. If not, he said there’s likely a job with Boeing in Seattle, or with Airbus somewhere on the East Coast.

Foster, who lives in Paramount, was less concerned with how the C-17 closure would affect her future, since she plans to retire, travel and enjoy herself after 3½ decades on the factory line.

“It’s been good,” Foster said of her jobs with McDonnell Douglas and Boeing, which helped her put two kids and a grandchild through college. “It’s the last big job for Long Beach.”